The happy couple’s two year-old son, Blake, was standing beside his mum when dad, Andrew, popped the question.

To Andrew’s delight, Samanatha said ‘yes’ and everyone who had come along to watch the charity skydive applauded.

Andrew (25) is from Maghera and Samantha (24) is from Knockloughrim. They met one another while working for Crawford’s in Maghera and have been together for four and-a-half years.

The charity parachute jump was in aid of Friends of the Cancer Centre and took place at Wild Geese Skydive in Garvagh, Co. Londonderry.

When I got down on one knee and Samantha said ‘yes’ it was the best feeling in the world

Andrew McKeown

“When I walked over to Samantha after the skydive I was buzzing with all the adrenaline,” said Andrew. “When I got down on one knee and Samantha said ‘yes’ it was the best feeling in the world.

“To be honest, I don’t really remember too much with all the adrenaline pumping. Our son, Blake, played his part too and all the people at Wild Geese were absolutely fantastic and did all they could to help the plan come off.”

Andrew said he had planned to propose to Samantha soon but when he thought about getting down on one knee after the skydive his mind was made up.

“The proposal came about because I knew I wanted to do it in the coming months and when I thought more about it I thought, why not do it after flying through the sky from 10,000 feet,” he smiled.

“Plus it was a great distraction from the thought of jumping from a plane. My sister Carol Graham was the one who really helped put it together as we were both taking part in the skydive for Friends of the Cancer Centre.”

Andrew added: “Thanks to Friends of the Cancer Centre too for giving us the opportunity to take part in an amazing event and for all the great work the charity does. We have raised so much so far but with some help we could raise more.”